Mix-up at Bullville polling station could mean days or weeks before outcome of Orange Legislature race

GOSHEN — The outcome of a close Orange County Legislature race between Democrat Roseanne Sullivan and Republican Legislator R.J. Smith will remain uncertain for days or even weeks because of a ballot mix-up at one polling station and several hundred untallied absentee ballots.

GOSHEN — The outcome of a close Orange County Legislature race between Democrat Roseanne Sullivan and Republican Legislator R.J. Smith will remain uncertain for days or even weeks because of a ballot mix-up at one polling station and several hundred untallied absentee ballots.

Sullivan led Smith by 25 votes Tuesday night, based on voting-machine results in the Legislature's 18th District, which encompasses much of the towns of Wallkill and Crawford.

County election officials say they're trying to figure out how to resolve mistakes involving 83 ballots distributed to voters at the Bullville fire station, which hosted three election districts — only one of which fell within the legislative boundaries and had the Smith-Sullivan race on its ballot. According to Election Commissioner David Green, 28 voters who live outside the 18th Legislative District were improperly given ballots that included the Smith-Sullivan contest, while another 55 people entitled to vote in the race were given ballots that excluded it.

Some voters who were mistakenly denied the opportunity to vote in the race have since filled out paper ballots, Green said. Election officials are awaiting guidance from the county's attorneys about whether to add those votes to the tally, which is now 3,278 to 3,253 in Sullivan's favor.

The Board of Elections hasn't decided when to count the race's absentee ballots. Some 416 voters in the district requested absentee ballots, and 325 have returned them. Under a timetable extended because of Hurricane Sandy, New York's boards of elections accept absentee ballots by mail until Nov. 19, if postmarked by Nov. 5.

Smith and Sullivan are competing to serve the final year of a seat vacated by Republican Dan Depew after he was elected Wallkill supervisor last November. Wallkill and Crawford town boards later chose Smith to fill Depew's seat until next election.

The race was the only contested seat on the 21-member Legislature in the midst of battles over the Government Center and county nursing home. A victory by Smith would preserve the Republicans' four-seat edge over Democrats; a Sullivan win would chop the advantage to two.